Jefferson City, MO – Hundreds of volunteers with Respect Missouri Voters gathered at the Missouri Secretary of State’s office in Jefferson City yesterday to submit over 367,000 signatures in support of placing a citizen-initiated constitutional amendment on the statewide ballot this fall. The amendment would require that all future ballot measures in the state be summarized for voters in fair, clear, and easily understandable terms. The amendment would also require that any attempt by the legislature to refer a voter-approved measure back to the ballot clear an 80% threshold in each chamber, a high bar designed to prevent politicians from undoing what voters have already decided.
Proponents of the measure argue it’s a necessary step as politicians in Missouri and elsewhere in recent years have reversed or undermined voter-approved laws, and used confusing summaries of ballot measures as a means of misleading voters and undermining ballot measure campaigns. According to the Respect Missouri Voters campaign, the amendment is intended to ensure that voters know exactly what they are voting on. With a minimum threshold of 170,215, the total signatures delivered this weekend was more than double the number required to qualify the proposed amendment for the 2026 ballot.
For Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, the leading national ballot measure organization and a key backer of the Respect Missouri Voters campaign, the submission of over 367,000 signatures was a positive sign not only for this campaign, but for Americans’ dedication to protecting their own democracy.
“This weekend marked a promising milestone for Missouri voters and for direct democracy,” said Hall. “Perhaps more than in any other state, voters in Missouri understand what is at stake,” she continued. “It’s in Missouri that extremist politicians have worked overtime to undermine the will of their voters, whether it’s been fighting to reinstate a wildly unpopular ban on access to abortion care, gerrymandering congressional districts, or undermining the ballot measure process. What voters are saying now is that democracy is sacred. That’s why over 367,000 individuals from across the state agree that it’s time to put a real wall up to protect the will of the voters.”
At a rally held yesterday to celebrate the submission of signatures, the coalition announced it had set a new record for the most signatures ever collected by volunteers in Missouri. Nearly 2,000 volunteers across the state collected over 257,000 signatures, far surpassing the previous volunteer record of 170,000. Following the rally, volunteers hand-delivered petitions from all 115 Missouri counties into the building.
“Voters are passionate about democracy and are turning out in droves – not for a Presidential Election, but for a signature drive for a ballot measure campaign in a midterm year. That’s almost unheard of,” Hall noted.
As the nation’s leading ballot measure organization, the Fairness Project is backing coalitions in several states campaigning to strengthen direct democracy. While the coalitions have unique goals and distinct state political environments, they are all using the ballot measure as the tool of choice to effectuate change. The Fairness Project is teaming up both with campaigns that are defending direct democracy where it is actively under attack by extremist politicians and with coalitions such as Respect Missouri Voters that are proactively bolstering the ballot measure process for future citizen-initiated campaigns.
Following yesterday’s signatures submission, the Secretary of State’s office has until 5pm on August 4, 2026 to certify the signatures. Once certified, the Respect Missouri Voters amendment will appear on the ballot in 2026.